INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Lakeland Police Aviation Unit to Stay Airborne

Lakeland City Commissioners met Tuesday morning for a budget workshop to consider several ways to deal with a loss of income from property tax reform. Finding new sources of revenue or cutting services were two ways the budget could be balanced to offset revenue reductions.

Two police programs being considered for elimination, the Aviation Unit and the DARE program for students, received support from the Commissioners and will remain part of our operations. Diane Lacey Allen from The Ledger covers this story on her blog.

We believe having the helicopter overhead while conducing aerial patrols is an important part of the public safety services we provide to the community. It is part of how we fight crime in our community. Our DARE program continues to provide a strong drug education message to local students. Comments from the public during two recent workshops at City Hall suggest community members feel the same way. We appreciate the support from the community as well as from the Commissioners.

As City Manager Doug Thomas reminded the audience at Monday's workshop, these difficult decisions are just the first round of property tax reform. Chuck Welch over at Lakeland Local  commented on Monday's workshop.

We are grateful for the community support we received for keeping these two programs.  It reminds us the importance, however, of providing exceptional service and value to our community with the funds we are given. That is a huge responsibility that we take seriously. In the mean time, we remain understaffed and will work through those personnel shortages until additional funding can be found to increase the number of police officers on the streets.

Our thanks to those who came out to the workshops and voiced their concerns about what losing the helicopter and DARE would mean to Lakeland. We are equally grateful to those who took the time to contact Commissioners to voice their belief that cuts need to be made. Residents who participate in the debate over critical public issues like property tax reform are part of what makes Lakeland a great community.

As always, we are interested in hearing your comments. Please drop us a note.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Public Workshops on FY 08 Budget Continue

A second workshop for public input regarding the FY 2008 Budget is scheduled for Monday, August 13, 2007 at 7:00 PM in the City Commission Chamber. The purpose of the workshop is to provide an update on the development of the FY 2008 Annual Budget in response to property tax reform measures that were recently adopted by the State of Florida. Information regarding various proposed strategies in response to reduced ad valorem and other revenue sources will be presented. Public input regarding revenue options and potential program reductions currently under consideration will be sought as well. Police programs being considered for reduction in funding or complete elimination include DARE, PAL, and the Aviation Unit.

This is the second such workshop for the City Commission. We mentioned the previous one a couple of weeks ago. The public is once again encouraged to attend.

Also, a workshop for the City Commission to discuss input from public meetings on July 25th and August 13th is scheduled for Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 10:00 AM in the City Commission Conference Room. The public is invited to attend this meeting as well.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Lakeland FY08 Budget Workshop

The City Commission presented a public workshop at City Hall Wednesday night to discuss the impact recent property tax reform will have on upcoming budgets. City Manager Doug Thomas and City Finance Director Greg Finch explained how the new law affects the amount of money Lakeland will receive next year from property taxes. You can get a copy of their presentation here.

Members the audience were allowed time to address the Commissioners and offer comments as well. As LakelandLocal.com's Chuck Welch noted, the general message from the public attending this workshop seemed to be "don't lower our taxes if it means cutting services."

Mrs. Deane Palmer, President of the Neighborhood
Association Coalition addresses the City Commissioners
during the workshop.

Three programs from the Lakeland Police Department were on the list of possible service cuts being considered in order to balance next year's budget. They included:

• $300,000 from the Aviation Unit
• $3,000 from our PAL and DARE programs

These cuts are in addition to the hiring freeze we put in place for civilian positions within the department. Two positions will not be filled at this time to reduce expenses, a Domestic Violence counselor and a Secretary. Operating and maintenance costs in next year's budget will be kept the same as last year - no growth in this area.

We certainly hope the Commissioners find a way to keep funding for the programs being considered for elimination. The Aviation Unit is an important part of how we deliver public safety services to the community. Research shows our "eyes in the skies" are the equivalent of 10 officers on the ground. The helicopter allows us to see things from above that officers cannot possibly see on the ground while helping to keep our officers safe. The proposed elimination of funding would effectively shut down the aviation program and make it too costly to ever see again.

The Lakeland Police Athletic League is a crime prevention program that focuses on giving youth an alternative to crime through athletic programs, after-school tutoring, and more. Sports programs such as football, basketball, baseball, and cheerleading give youth an opportunity for recreational activities and help them make positive choices in their lives. The funding cut being proposed is used to cover supplies. We would need to find another funding source to replace those needed supplies, but the loss would not eliminate PAL which operates as an independent organization.

The Drug Abuse Resistance and Education program (DARE) is a crime prevention program taught by police officers in our local schools. Unlike the School Resource Officer program that is funded to a large degree by the Polk County School Board, DARE officers are completely funded by the City of Lakeland. The proposed elimination of the program would move four police officers back to the streets. DARE (and its accompanying program GREAT - Gang Resistance Education and Training) are offered to all local public and private elementary and middle schools. It is interesting to note that books, t-shirts, and other program supplies are funded through an annual golf tournament sponsored by the School Resource Unit. The City does not have a line-item budget for DARE except the four police officer positions.

We are fortunate that other police officer positions are not being considered for cuts at this time.  While we understand the need to reduce budgets to meet decreased revenues from property tax reform, public safety is one area that we believe cannot be cut. The quality of life within our community depends too much on public safety services.

We are also extremely fortunate to have members of the public who are interested in this matter and willing to spend an evening with their elected officials to discuss the matter of keeping taxes at currently levels in order to retain quality services. Their ongoing support and recognition of the efforts of our department members is appreciated.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

TAC Crime Target Leads to North Side Vehicle Burglary Arrests by NET Team

One of the active TAC targets we are working involves vehicle burglaries on the north side of town, particularly apartment complexes. NET officers B. Masters and T. Bailey, two of our undercover surveillance experts, were sitting on a target location late Monday night and observed two subjects acting suspicious around parked vehicles. A traffic stop on the subjects' vehicle as it drove away from the location led to the discovery of property believed to be stolen. Subsequent conversation with the subjects led to an admission they had just recently committed a vehicle burglary at the apartments.

What is interesting to note about this case is the follow up investigation is now leading to the clearance of over 30 additional vehicle burglaries all over Lakeland. Detectives continue to pursue leads and make more clearances from this one arrest. The arrestees are:

Dominic Rashawn Baldwin, B/M, 5-4-89 (left) and Gregory Randoff Smith, Jr., B/M, 1-25-89 (right).

   

We will continue these surveillance stakeouts when we develop useful information from our TAC meetings. In the mean time, you can help reduce the number of vehicle burglaries by simply locking your car windows and doors, and not keeping valuables in plain view inside your car or truck. Over half of our vehicle burglaries occur to unsecured vehicles with valuables easily seen. Remember - "Lock It or Lose It".

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Property Tax Reform

One of the hottest political topics in our state today is the issue of property tax reform. Local politicians and representatives of governments throughout Polk County met with the Polk County legislative delegation on Wednesday to discuss the impact of proposed property tax cuts. State Senators J.D. Alexander and Paula Dockery along with State Representatives Frank Attkisson, Seth McKeel, Dennis Ross, and Baxter Troutman were in attendance.

Everyone seems to agree on one thing - our property tax system is not fair in its current form and needs to be fixed. Agreement ends if the fix to the system reduces local government budgets

You can catch more of the news coverage from this event at The Ledger. Our reason for attending the meeting and mentioning it here in our blog is not to report the news - we leave that to the media who do a great job at it. Rather, our goal is to answer questions we receive from the community asking what the impact of property tax reform will be on the police department.

The answer at this time is - we just do not know because it is too early to tell.

Some initial projections indicate the loss of revenue to the police department could equal losing 12 police officer positions, while other estimations are not that severe. We have already been asked to maintain our operating expenses in next year's budget at this year's level (as opposed to the original 3% increase) and impose a soft hiring freeze for some positions. We have not been asked to cut any positions.

Without any firm revenue figures upon which a budget can be created, we have no solid idea what type of reduction our budget faces. What can be stated at this time is fairly straight forward and simple... a reduction in the budget will require the police department consider four options:

1. Maximize efficiencies wherever possible
2. Find alternative funding sources, such as grants or user fees
3. Cut some minor services to maintain current staff
4. Reduce staff size, preferably through attrition

The Executive Staff began discussing this issue several months ago, and we continue to carefully monitor the situation so we can respond in a reasonable and prudent manner rather than with some knee-jerk reaction. What we can state with certainty is that we will maintain sufficient resources to answer 9-1-1 phone calls, respond to emergency calls for service, patrol neighborhoods, address emerging crime trends, and conduct follow up investigations.

Our goal is straight forward - we will avoid scare tactics that suggest crime will run rampant through our community if our budget is reduced by any amount, but at the same time be honest in answering questions about how we will work around what appears to be an inevitable loss of some funding.

That is our commitment to excellence in action.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere